Village Voice illo, 10/31/92

I'm pretty sure this Sinatra-Jacko illo ran in the Voice. I don't remember who assigned it to me, but it was during Robert Newman's tenure as Design Director. Ink on denril vellum, 10/31/92.

20 Ways to Die in NY: Cover & 20 spot illos for the Village Voice

20 Ways to Die in NY: 

words by Nick Lucchesi, 

art direction by Tom Carlson, 

art by yours truly.

A tip of the hat to departing Riverfront Times art director Tom Carlson

Joe Camel, January 2010 

Kim Jong Il Rocks, February 2005 

Undead Elvis, August 2002 

Nelly rapping with Dick Gephardt, December 2004

Stinky Chicken, February 2002

Popcorn Sex, October 2004

Bad Beer Baron board game, January 2011

Bad Beer Baron board game, January 2011

Bad Beer Baron board game, January 2011

Bad Beer Baron board game, January 2011

I saw earlier today that Tom Carlson, titan among art directors, is parting ways with the Riverfront Times after 31 years at the alt weekly. That’s a staggering run! Offhand, I can think of only one other art department denizen who’s held his post anywhere near that long, (Village Voice stalwart Jesus Diaz).

I spent a few minutes reviewing my illos for Riverfront Times, and was pleased to discover that, in spite of the age of many of them, a fair number of the illos I drew for Tom are aging well. I’m posting a few of them here as a tip of the hat to one of the greats. THANKS, TOM! 

(No need to break out the hankies, Tom continues in his role as Design Director of the Voice Media Group).

Fighting Fans illo for VILLAGE VOICE

Fighting Fans illo for VILLAGE VOICE, 3/23/15

art direction by Tom Carlson.

Vladimir Putin illo for the Village Voice, November 2007

This was an illo for the Village Voice in November of 2007, (a year or so after the assassination of Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya). That said, given yesterday's murder of Boris Nemtsov, this seems like an appropriate moment to dust off the nearly eight year old drawing and trot it back out, (art direction by Jesus Diaz).

Alec Baldwin illo for VILLAGE VOICE

Don't NYPD have anything better to do 

than hassle Alec Baldwin for biking down the street backwards?

(illo for VILLAGE VOICE, March 2011, art direction by Jesus Diaz)

Michael Musto illo for Village Voice

Now that the Voice has cut him loose, one wonders where this saucy trollop will turn up next...?

Illo for Village Voice, Feb 2007, art direction by Jesus Diaz.

Alexander Cockburn (1941-2012), R.I.P.

Alexander Cockburn (1941-2012), R.I.P.

(illo from New York Press, October 19, 1998)

Christmasy Illos of 2009 (Part One): Village Voice Gift Guide Cover

Santa came across with some tasty illustration assignments this season, and here's the first of them.

The Village Voice's Justin Reynolds got in touch with me in early October about cover art for their yearly gift guide. He had a charming concept in mind: a sequence of four illos following the journey of a cheesy holiday sweater as it is gifted and re-gifted, finally landing right back where it started.

For me, the fun part of this assignment was coming up with the four re-gifters, all disparate urban types, none of whom would be caught dead wearing the sad snowman sweater.

Cover Art for Village Voice Summer Guide 2009

On Monday, May 4th, I was delighted to receive an email from Village Voice Art Director Ivylise Simones, asking if I'd like to draw cover art for the Voice and the Voice's Summer Guide section for the week of May 11, 2009. I've drawn covers for pretty much every alt weekly paper in the US, and I've drawn a heap of spot illos for the Voice since the mid 1990s, (in fact, I think my first professional illo assignments outside of SCREW Magazine came from Florian Bachleda at the Voice in the very late 1980s). However, this would be my first Voice cover, and I must admit that this assignment got my pulse quickening just a tiny bit.

The folks at the Voice were looking for a single drawing that could function both as the front cover, and as the cover of their pullout Summer Guide section. In addition to the Summer Guide, this issue would feature a story about NYC's mayor Mike Bloomberg butting heads with the United Federation of Teachers, and their idea was to work Bloomberg into a idyllic Central Park scene as an ice cream vendor. Their plan was to run the full illo on the Summer Guide cover, and to isolate and enlarge vendor Bloomberg for the paper's front cover. My first sketch shows Bloomberg in the vicinity of Central Park's Naumburg Bandshell, surrounded by a small handful of colorful summertime frolickers. To work in the UFT angle, our kindly Mayor dispenses popsicles to school kids while a grumpy teacher scowls nearby.



After checking out the first sketch, Voice Production Designer Justin Reynolds emailed to say that they liked the first sketch, and asked if I could widen the panorama, make Bloomberg less prominent, and give the viewer more than just a small handful of colorful summertime frolickers. My concern was that if Bloomberg was to become a smaller element in the illo, he might end up looking fairly shitty when enlarged for the paper's front cover. I suggested that instead of one illo being used for both covers, I would draw the "cast of thousands" illo for the Summer Guide cover, and draw a separate illo for the front cover focusing on Bloomberg and the kids. While I was making more work for myself at the same rate of pay, I felt that this was the best way to avoid having the front cover end up looking like shit. This was Wednesday, May 6th, and the deadline was Monday the 11th at 11 AM. The timing was a bit tight, but there was sufficient time left to get both drawings done.

The new sketch for the Summer Guide cover, (now with two heaping scoops of colorful summertime frolickers) was immediately approved.





The sketch for the front cover, (focusing on ice cream vendor Bloomberg) went through a couple of revisions, the most crucial of which featured Ivy's idea that Bloomberg should face the reader. I thought this was a fine idea, since it places the viewer in the role of one of the kids clamoring for a popsicle. This sketch was approved on Thursday, May 7th, and I got started on the final art, which would be finished at 7 AM on Monday the 11th, after four days of round-the-clock drawing.







There were a couple of minor revisions to the final art for the Voice's front cover: my original final version featured a deep red background, which Ivy felt would not print well. She suggested a light blue or yellow background, and I thought the light blue worked quite well, perhaps better than the deep red. The Bloomberg logo was deleted from the ice cream cart to make room for cover lines, and we were done!

What a thrill it was to finally draw a Voice cover! Many thanks to Ivy and Justin.